


As the World Turns

by grydo2life



Category: Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Character Death Fix, F/M, Fix-It, M/M, NOTHING IS AS IT SEEMS, Phil's cellist
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-17
Updated: 2012-08-17
Packaged: 2017-11-12 08:37:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/488885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grydo2life/pseuds/grydo2life
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“So, I want to hear about this cellist. Is that still a thing?” Pepper asks.</p><p>A somewhat unusual fix-it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As the World Turns

**Author's Note:**

> The first time I saw The Avengers, I had already been spoiled about the cellist lines and was looking forward to seeing them. One of the things that stuck out to me was the way Pepper responded to Coulson telling her about the cellist moving away; it was always just a touch too scandalized and dramatic for me to buy that they were talking about something personal, which made me think.
> 
> The result of that thinking is this.

“So, I want to hear about this cellist. Is that still a thing?” Pepper asks as she leads Phil away. 

“She moved back to Portland.” Phil tells her, and she nearly stumbles, because really, she hadn’t been expecting _that_.

“ _No!_ ” It comes out a little more dramatic than she intends, and she shoots Phil a sheepish smile when he raises an amused eyebrow at her. “I was really hoping they'd keep her around until at least the end of the season.” Phil shakes his head, and Pepper sighs sadly. “Oh well. Anything else?”

“Sophia went in for her first ultrasound. Twins. And Madeline found out about the affair.”

“That’s it?”

Phil shrugs. “It was a slow episode.”

Pepper clucks her tongue, disappointed. She’s been waiting all week for the update; now, it hardly seems worth it. “They made it look so interesting in the previews, too.”

“They usually do.” Phil tells her, and then adds, “I’m surprised you missed it. You sounded excited about it on the phone.”

“I was.” Pepper agrees, and then makes a motion that effectively encompasses the entirety of their surroundings. “But Tony decided to try and upgrade the TiVo the day before. So now it only records three channels, and all of them are in Spanish.”

“Ah.” Phil says in understanding.

“Speaking of slow,” Pepper continues, shooting Phil a knowing look. “I was starting to worry. You usually get right back to me when I email you for a recap.” She looks at him in interest, and tries to fight down a smile when he looks briefly uncomfortable under the scrutiny. 

“I meant to.” He says sincerely. “But Clint had some down time over the weekend and we ended up… distracted.”

“I see.” Pepper says, grinning now. “And how _is_ Clint?”

A shadow passes over Phil’s face the moment the words are out, and Pepper feels her chipper mood drain away at the sight of it. She doesn’t ask him what happened; she knows he couldn’t tell her even if he wanted to. And anyway, she has a feeling he wouldn’t want to in the first place; they’re friends, certainly, but not the type to bear their souls to each other. 

Instead, she settles her hand against his arm and says, comfortingly, “I’m sure it’ll be alright.”

Phil gives her a smile, but it’s so tight and shallow that she almost wishes he hadn’t tried at all. “I’m sure you’re right.” He says, patting her hand kindly, as if she’s the one in need of comfort. They’re at the point now where he can go on by himself, but he pauses before he does. “Be safe, Virginia.” He says seriously.

Pepper smiles and reaches out to touch his cheek gently. “Of course.”

Phil nods and turns away. Pepper watches him go with a heavy heart.

\------------x

Days later, after an invasion has been thwarted and the world saved and the Avengers brought together and then spread apart all over again, Tony hunts her down and waits patiently for her to finish her phone call. When she’s done, he takes her phone and turns it off, and then takes her by the hand and leads her into one of the few rooms of the Tower’s high-levels that hadn’t been decimated by the fight with Loki.

Then he tells her everything.

“I’m sorry, Pepp,” he says at the end of it all, reaching out to brush her arm, the look in his eyes gentle. “I know you were friends.” 

Sometime while he’d been talking, Pepper had moved to stand near a window. Now she braces herself against it and takes a deep breath, then a second, and finally a third. “Okay.” She says, and unsuccessfully tries to swallow the lump forming in her throat. “Okay.”

“Pepp.” Tony says again, and he sounds like he’s searching now, asking her to give him something, anything, to work with. He never knows what to do with himself when it’s a problem he can’t fight or toss money at to make it go away.

“Oh for God’s sake, Tony,” Pepper says, her voice cracking. “Just… just hold me, okay?”

“Okay.” Tony agrees, and he sounds just as broken as she does in that moment. Opening his arms for her to fall into, he tells her, “I can do that.”

He kisses her hair roughly and clings to her like she’s the only thing keeping him tethered there, and against his shoulder, Pepper cries.

\------------x

A few weeks pass. The world tries to move on. It’s hard and slow and nobody is really sure of what to do with themselves now, but somehow things keep going and sometimes, when no one’s paying attention, it feels like nothing ever happened at all. Pepper makes phone calls and arrangements and keeps schedules, and Tony spends his money on ridiculous things and causes massive amounts of destruction and curses at his robots, and the world keeps turning.

On the third week, Pepper goes to check her email one last time before bed and finds, buried between updates and notifications and spam, a single email that she nearly junks until she notes the address it came from.

_To: vpotts@starkindustries.com  
From: birdsandarrows@hotmail.com  
Subject: New episode last night_

_Wasn’t sure if you got to watch it or not, but Phil wouldn’t have wanted you to miss this._

_Turns out the babies weren’t actually Daniel’s; they’re Jacob’s. And the affair with Kim got broken off, but Charlie is still in the dog house. And then Jacob’s crazy ass sister came back and tried to kill him, which ended with Kim quitting her job and now she’s moving to Chicago._

_We also learned that Phyllis wasn't actually dead; just in a coma. Nicole covered it up, but Claire and Nathan figured it out. The previews for next week say there's going to be hell to pay. You should come over and watch it with me._

_\- C. Barton_

The last paragraph makes something in her ache uncomfortably; none of the names are characters from the show, and Pepper is far from stupid even on her slowest days. The email has a single attachment; a .jpg simply titled ‘screencap’. She hesitates, and then finally clicks it open. 

When it finally loads, she has to turn away and cover her mouth to keep back the sob that bubbles up. 

The image is grainy, clearly taken with an older cellphone, but the focus of it is unmistakable. There’s a hospital bed centered in the frame, and on it is Phil Coulson. He’s pale and hooked up to more machines than Pepper can or cares to name, but he is clearly _alive_. On the bed beside him is a sheet of printer paper, and scribbled across it in block numbers is yesterday's date.

For the second time in her life, Pepper cries over Phil. 

This time, it’s for all the right reasons.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is, appropriately, taken from a soap opera.
> 
> Edited 9/19 to reflect the actual lines from the movie, rather that the half-right ones I vaguely remembered from over two months ago.


End file.
